Electronic device generating notification based on context data in response to speech phrase from user

ABSTRACT

A method for generating a notification by an electronic device to alert a user of the electronic device is disclosed. In this method, a speech phrase may be received. Then, the received speech phrase may be recognized, by a processor, as a command to generate the notification. In addition, one or more context data of the electronic device may be detected by at least one sensor. It may be determined whether the notification is to be generated at least based on the context data. The notification may be generated, by the processor, based on the context data and the command to generate the notification.

FIELD OF THE DISCLOSURE

The present disclosure relates to generating a notification by anelectronic device, and more specifically, to generating a notificationto alert a user of the electronic device.

DESCRIPTION OF RELATED ART

Recently, the use of electronic devices such as smartphones, tabletcomputers, wearable computers, and the like has become widespread. Thesedevices often provide voice and/or data communication functionalitiesover wireless or wired networks. In addition, such devices may provide avariety of functions designed to enhance user convenience such as soundprocessing, image or video processing, navigation, reproduction of musicor multimedia files, etc.

Among such functions, conventional electronic devices are often equippedwith a speech recognition function. Such electronic devices may performa function in response to receiving and recognizing a voice command froma user. For example, an electronic device equipped with a speechrecognition function may activate an application, play an audio file, ortake a picture in response to a voice command from a user.

Occasionally, electronic devices may be lost or misplaced by theirusers. In such cases, some conventional electronic devices areconfigured to output an alarm sound or a message to assist the users infinding the electronic devices. For example, an electronic device mayalert a user of its location by generating an alarm sound in response toa voice command from the user. The electronic device may also transmit amessage to another electronic device of the user to inform the user ofthe location of the electronic device.

In some situations, however, alarm sounds may be generated erroneously.For example, if a voice command to find an electronic device is receivedby a user's electronic device from another person intended for his orher own electronic device, the user's electronic device may generate analarm sound in response to the voice command Further, using audiofunctions of electronic devices in some locations such as a library, atheater, a meeting room, and the like may be restricted or limited. Insuch an environment, generating an alarm sound for locating anelectronic device in response to a voice command from the user oranother person may be undesirable.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present disclosure relates to generating a notification to alert auser of the electronic device based on context data of the electronicdevice and a command to generate the notification.

According to one aspect of the present disclosure, a method forgenerating a notification by an electronic device to alert a user of theelectronic device is disclosed. In this method, a speech phrase may bereceived. Then, the received speech phrase may be recognized, by aprocessor, as a command to generate the notification. In addition, oneor more context data of the electronic device may be detected by atleast one sensor. It may be determined whether the notification is to begenerated at least based on the context data. The notification may begenerated, by the processor, based on the context data and the commandto generate the notification. The disclosure also describes acomputer-readable medium relating to this method.

According to another aspect of the present disclosure, an electronicdevice for generating a notification to alert a user of the electronicdevice is disclosed. The electronic device may include a sound sensor, aspeech recognition unit, a sensor unit, a processor, and an output unit.The sound sensor may be configured to receive a speech phrase, and thespeech recognition unit may be configured to recognize the speech phraseas a command to generate the notification. In addition, the sensor unitmay be configured to detect context data of the electronic device.Further, the processor may be configured to generate the notificationbased on the context data and the command The output unit may beconfigured to generate at least one of audible sound, vibration, orvisible light indicative of the notification. Additionally, theprocessor may include a notification processing unit, which isconfigured to determine whether the notification is to be generatedbased on the context data.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Embodiments of the inventive aspects of this disclosure will beunderstood with reference to the following detailed description, whenread in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 illustrates an electronic device configured to generate anotification to alert a user of the electronic device based on contextdata of the electronic device, according to one embodiment of thepresent disclosure.

FIG. 2 illustrates a block diagram of the electronic device configuredto generate a notification for the user based on context data of theelectronic device, according to one embodiment of the presentdisclosure.

FIG. 3 illustrates a block diagram of the sensor unit configured todetect context data of the electronic device, according to oneembodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 4 illustrates a flow chart of a method performed by the processorin the electronic device for generating a notification based on contextdata of the electronic device, according to one embodiment of thepresent disclosure.

FIG. 5 illustrates a flowchart of a method performed by the notificationprocessing unit in the processor for determining whether thenotification is to be generated based on the context data, according toone embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 6 illustrates an input sound spoken by the user in a directiontoward the electronic device, according to one embodiment of the presentdisclosure.

FIG. 7 illustrates an input sound spoken by the user in a directionother than a direction toward the electronic device, according to oneembodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 8 illustrates recognizing a speech phrase as a command to generatethe notification based on reception times of a first speech phrase and asecond speech phrase, according to one embodiment of the presentdisclosure.

FIG. 9 illustrates the electronic device configured to transmit anotification including location information of the electronic device toan external device of the user, according to one embodiment of thepresent disclosure.

FIG. 10 illustrates a flowchart of a method performed by the processorfor locking or unlocking the electronic device, according to oneembodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 11 is a block diagram of an exemplary electronic device in whichthe methods and apparatus for generating a notification based on thecontext data and the command to generate the notification may beimplemented, according to one embodiment of the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Reference will now be made in detail to various embodiments, examples ofwhich are illustrated in the accompanying drawings. In the followingdetailed description, numerous specific details are set forth in orderto provide a thorough understanding of the inventive aspects of thisdisclosure. However, it will be apparent to one of ordinary skill in theart that the inventive aspects of this disclosure may be practicedwithout these specific details. In other instances, well-known methods,procedures, systems, and components have not been described in detail soas not to unnecessarily obscure aspects of the various embodiments.

FIG. 1 illustrates an electronic device 120 configured to generate anotification to alert a user 110 of the electronic device 120 based oncontext data of the electronic device 120, according to one embodimentof the present disclosure. As shown, the user 110 and the electronicdevice 120 may be located in a room 100. The electronic device may beplaced on a desk 102 and covered by a plurality of books 104, so thatthe user 110 may not be able to find the electronic device 120. Asillustrated herein, the electronic device 120 may be any suitable deviceadapted to receive and process sounds such as a smartphone, a digitalcamera, a wearable computer (e.g., smart glasses, a smart watch, etc.),a personal computer, a laptop computer, a tablet computer, a gamingdevice, etc.

To locate the electronic device 120, the user 110 may speak a speechphrase indicative of a command to generate the notification to alert theuser 110 of the electronic device 120. The electronic device 120 mayreceive the speech phrase from the user 110 via a sound sensor 130 inthe electronic device 120. The speech phrase may be one or morepredetermined keywords and/or one or more natural language phrases, aswill be described in more detail below with reference to FIG. 8. Uponreceiving the speech phrase, the electronic device 120 may recognize thespeech phrase as the command to generate the notification.

Upon recognizing the speech phrase as the command to generate thenotification, the electronic device 120 may detect context data of theelectronic device 120. As used herein, the term “context data” of anelectronic device may be any data or information describing orcharacterizing an environmental condition of the electronic device suchas an ambient light level, an ambient sound level, a current time, acurrent location, etc. of the electronic device, and usage dataindicative of whether the electronic device 120 is being used by theuser 110 such as data indicative of a movement of the electronic device,an image of the user 110, a user input (e.g., a key input, a touchinput, a speech input, etc.) detected by the electronic device, an eventindicative of an unacknowledged incoming communication, and/or an inputsound (e.g., a speech command) spoken in a direction other than adirection toward the electronic device.

Based on the context data and the command to generate the notification,the electronic device 120 may generate the notification. In oneembodiment, the electronic device 120 may determine whether thenotification is to be generated based on the context data and thecommand to generate the notification. Upon determining that thenotification is to be generated, the electronic device 120 may generateand output the notification adapted to alert the user 110 of theelectronic device 120. The notification may be output using any suitableoutput units such as a speaker, a vibrating unit, a light output unit(e.g., a display screen, an LED flash, etc.), a communication unit, andthe like that may provide an output indicative of a location or presenceof the electronic device 120 and allow the user 110 to find or locatethe electronic device 120.

On the other hand, the electronic device 120 may determine that thenotification is not to be generated based on the context data of theelectronic device 120. For example, if the context data indicates thatthe electronic device 120 is being used by the user 110 or is located ina library, the electronic device 120 may determine that the notificationis not to be generated. In this case, even when the electronic device120 has recognized the speech phrase as the command to generate thenotification, the notification may not be generated. In this manner,generation of the notification may be controlled based on the contextdata of the electronic device 120 to prevent an undesired or inadvertentnotification from being generated and output.

FIG. 2 illustrates a block diagram of the electronic device 120configured to generate a notification for the user 110 based on contextdata of the electronic device 120, according to one embodiment of thepresent disclosure. The electronic device 120 may include a sound sensor130, a sensor unit 210, an output unit 220, a communication unit 230,storage unit 240 and a processor 250. The processor 250 may include aspeech recognition unit 252, a voice assistant unit 254, and anotification processing unit 256. The processor 250 may be any suitableprocessor for managing and operating the electronic device 120, such asan application processor (AP), central processing unit (CPU), digitalsignal processor (DSP), etc. The sound sensor 130 may be a separatecomponent from the sensor unit 210 or may be included in the sensor unit210, and may be any suitable device capable of receiving sound andconverting the sound into electronic signals indicative of the sound. Asused herein, the term “unit” may refer to one or more hardwarecomponents, sections, parts, or circuitry capable of performing oradapted to perform one or more functions and may additionally performsuch functions in conjunction with or by executing processes,instructions, procedures, subroutines, or the like (e.g., program code,microcode, etc.). In turn, a “unit” may be segmented into smaller units(e.g., sub-units) or two or more units may be combined into a single“unit.”

In the electronic device 120, the sound sensor 130 may be configured toreceive a speech phrase from the user 110. Upon receiving the speechphrase, the sound sensor 130 may provide the speech phrase to the speechrecognition unit 252 of the processor 250. The speech recognition unit252 in the processor 250 may be configured to recognize the speechphrase as a command to perform a function such as a command to generatethe notification using any suitable speech recognition schemes such asHidden Markov Model, Deep Neural Networks, or the like. Once the speechphrase is recognized as the command to generate the notification, thespeech recognition unit 252 may provide the command to generate thenotification to the notification processing unit 256 in the processor250. In this case, the notification processing unit 256 may be in adeactivated state and may be activated by the speech recognition unit252 upon recognizing the command to generate the notification.Alternatively, the notification processing unit 256 may already beactivated for receiving the command to generate the notification fromthe speech recognition unit 252.

According to some embodiments, the speech phrase may include at least afirst speech phrase and a second speech phrase, each of which may be apredetermined keyword or a phrase. For example, the speech recognitionunit 252 may recognize the first phrase (e.g., “Hey Snapdragon”) andactivate the voice assistant unit 254 in the processor 250. The voiceassistant unit 254 may then receive the second speech phrase (e.g.,“Where are you?”) via the sound sensor 130 and recognize the secondspeech phrase as a command to generate a notification. Upon recognizingthe second speech phrase, the voice assistant unit 254 may activate thenotification processing unit 256 and provide the recognized command togenerate the notification to the notification processing unit 256.

In the electronic device 120, the sensor unit 210 may include anysuitable number and types of sensors or devices capable of detectingcontext data of the electronic devices. For example, the sensor unit 210may include a sound sensor (e.g., the sound sensor 130), an imagesensor, a motion sensor, a clock unit, a location sensor, an input unit,and the like, as will be described in more detail with reference to FIG.3. The sensor unit 210 may detect context data such as a user input, animage of the user 110, an environmental condition (e.g., locationinformation, timing information, an ambient light value), a movement ofthe electronic device 120, an event indicative of an unacknowledgedincoming communication, and/or an input sound (e.g., a speech command)spoken in a direction other than a direction toward the electronicdevice 120, and provide the context data to the notification processingunit 256. In one embodiment, the sensor unit 210 may be configured tomonitor context data continuously, periodically, or intermittently.Additionally or alternatively, the sensor unit 210 may be configured todetect context data upon receiving and/or recognizing a speech phraseindicative of a command to generate the notification.

Upon receiving the command to generate the notification, thenotification processing unit 256 may be configured to determine whetherthe notification is to be generated based on the context data receivedfrom the sensor unit 210 and/or the sound sensor 130. For example, ifthe context data indicates that the electronic device 120 is likely tobe inaccessible to the user 110 (e.g., lost or misplaced), thenotification processing unit 256 of the electronic device 120 maydetermine that the notification is to be generated. On the other hand,if the context data indicates that the electronic device 120 is locatedat a place such as in a library, a movie theater, etc., where the use ofthe electronic device 120 may be restricted, the notification processingunit 256 may determine that the notification is not to be generated.

The notification processing unit 256 may be configured to instruct theoutput unit 220 to generate the notification based on the context dataand the recognized command to generate the notification. According toone embodiment, in response to determining that the notification is tobe generated based on the context data, the notification processing unit256 may generate one or more signals configured to control generation ofthe notification by the output unit 220. For example, the notificationprocessing unit 256 may provide one or more signals to activate and/orinstruct the output unit 220 to generate the notification upondetermining that the notification is to be generated. On the other hand,the notification processing unit 256 may determine that the notificationis not to be generated based on the context data. In this case, thenotification processing unit 256 may not provide any signals to instructthe output unit 220 for generating the notification or may provide oneor more signals to deactivate and/or instruct the output unit 220 toprevent generation of the notification. In this manner, the notificationmay not be output based on the context data even when the speech phrasereceived from the user 110 is recognized as a command to generate thenotification.

The output unit 220 may be configured to generate the notification basedon the context data and the command to generate the notification. Asdescribed herein, the output unit 220 may be any suitable componentcapable of outputting notification in response to one or more controlsignals from the notification processing unit 256. In one embodiment,the output unit 220 may include any one of a speaker 222, a vibratingunit 224, a display screen 226, an LED unit 228, etc., or anycombination thereof. For example, the speaker 222 in the electronicdevice 120 may output an audible sound (e.g., an alarm sound, aringtone, or the like) to assist the user 110 in finding the electronicdevice 120. Additionally or alternatively, the vibrating unit 224 mayvibrate, or the display screen 226 or the LED unit 228 may outputvisible light. In an additional or alternative embodiment, thenotification processing unit 256 may generate a notification (e.g., amessage indicating a location of the electronic device, which may beobtained from a location sensor in the sensor unit 210), and transmitthe notification to an external device associated with the user 110 viathe communication unit 230.

The storage unit 240 in the electronic device 120 may store a commanddatabase (not shown) of one or more predetermined speech phrases for theelectronic device 120 to generate the notification. The command databasemay be accessed by the speech recognition unit 252 and/or the voiceassistant unit 254 in the processor 250 to recognize a received speechphrase as the command to generate the notification. In some embodiments,the storage unit 240 may store a context database (not shown), which maybe accessed by the notification processing unit 256 in the processor 250for use in determining whether the notification is to be generated basedon the context data. The context database may be configured to store anysuitable types of data or information that may be used for determiningwhether the notification is to be generated, such as a predeterminedlocation where the notification is not to be generated, a predeterminedtime period during which the notification is not to be generated, andthe like. In one embodiment, the context database may be updated basedon context data received continuously, periodically, or intermittentlyby the sensor unit 210. The storage unit 240 may be implemented usingany suitable storage or memory devices such as a RAM (Random AccessMemory), a ROM (Read-Only Memory), an EEPROM (Electrically ErasableProgrammable Read-Only Memory), a flash memory, or an SSD (solid statedrive).

FIG. 3 illustrates a block diagram of the sensor unit 210 configured todetect context data of the electronic device 120, according to oneembodiment of the present disclosure. The sensor unit 210 may include aplurality of sensors such as a sound sensor 130, an image sensor 310, amovement sensor 320 (e.g., an accelerometer, a gyroscope, etc.), a clockunit 330, a location sensor 340, and an input unit 350 (e.g., a touchscreen, a key or button, etc.). The sensors 130, 310, 320, 330, 340, and350 may detect one or more inputs as context data, which may be providedto the notification processing unit 256 in the processor 250.

The sound sensor 130 may be configured to receive an input sound andconvert the input sound into sound data, which may be output as contextdata to the notification processing unit 256. The sound sensor 130 mayinclude one or more microphones or any other types of sound sensors thatcan be used to receive, capture, sense, and/or detect an input sound,and may employ any suitable software and/or hardware for performing suchfunctions. In one embodiment, the sound sensor 130 may receive an inputsound including a speech phrase spoken from the user 110. The inputsound may also include an environmental sound of the electronic device120 or from the user 110 such as background sound, noise, etc. As theinput sound is received, the sound sensor 130 may generate sound data,which may be provided to the notification processing unit 256 as contextdata.

According to one embodiment, the sound sensor 130 may be also configuredto receive a speech phrase as a command to generate a notification fromthe user 110 and provide the speech phrase to the speech recognitionunit 252. In another embodiment, the speech phrase may include a firstspeech phrase and a second speech phrase. In this case, the sound sensor130 may provide the first speech phrase to the speech recognition unit252, which may activate the voice assistant unit 254 upon recognizingthe first speech phrase as a command to activate the voice assistantunit 254. The voice assistant unit 254 may receive the second speechphrase from the sound sensor 130 and recognize the phrase as a commandto generate the notification.

In the sensor unit 210, the image sensor 310 may be configured tocapture one or more images such as a face, eyes, lips, or a hand of auser, etc. The images may also include a background image of the user orthe electronic device 120. According to one embodiment, the image sensor310 may capture an image of a face, an eye (e.g., iris), or any otherphysical images that can be used to identify a user. According toanother embodiment, an ambient light level of the electronic device 120may be detected by the image sensor 310. The image sensor 310 may thenprovide the images and/or the ambient light level as context data to thenotification processing unit 256 in the processor 250. As describedherein, the image sensor 310 may be any suitable image or light sensingdevice (e.g., a camera, a camera module, a charge-coupled device, etc.)capable of capturing or sensing an image or a light level.

The movement sensor 320 may be configured to detect a movement of theelectronic device 120. In one embodiment, the movement sensor 320 may bea gyroscope and/or an accelerometer configured to monitor orientationsand/or acceleration of the electronic device 120 and generate dataindicative of a change in orientation or a motion of the electronicdevice 120. For example, the gyroscope may detect orientations of theelectronic device 120 to track a motion or movement of the electronicdevice 120. On the other hand, the accelerometer may detect accelerationor orientations of the electronic device 120 to track a motion of theelectronic device 120. The generated data indicative of a change inorientation or a motion of the electronic device 120 may be provided tothe notification processing unit 256 as context data.

The clock unit 330 in the sensor unit 210 may be configured to detecttiming information (e.g., a current time) of the electronic device 120and output the detected timing information as context data. The clockunit 330 may be a timing device or clock embedded in the electronicdevice 120 and configured to track current time. Additionally oralternatively, the clock unit 330 may be implemented in the processor250 as a CPU clock, receive timing information from an external networkvia the communication unit 230, or use GPS time information received viathe location sensor 340 to keep track of the current time. The clockunit 330 may provide the timing information to the notificationprocessing unit 256 as context data.

The location sensor 340 may be configured to detect location information(e.g., a current location) of the electronic device 120 and output thedetected location information as context data. In one embodiment, thelocation sensor 340 may be a GPS receiver configured to detect GPSlocation information and timing information based on GPS signalsreceived from a plurality of GPS satellites. Additionally oralternatively, the location sensor 340 may be a wireless receiverconfigured to receive signals from a plurality of Wi-Fi access points orcell tower base stations and detect location information of theelectronic device 120. The location sensor 340 may then provide thelocation information, which may include a set of latitude, longitude,and altitude of the electronic device 120, to the notificationprocessing unit 256 as context data.

The input unit 350 may be configured to detect an input from a user(e.g., a manual input) of the electronic device 120 and output thedetected input as context data. In one embodiment, the input unit 350may be any suitable input devices for receiving an input from a user(e.g., a user input) and may include a touch screen, a button, a keypad,a touchpad, or the like. The input unit 350 may provide the detectedinput from the user to the notification processing unit 256 as contextdata.

FIG. 4 illustrates a flow chart of a method performed by the processor250 in the electronic device 120 for generating a notification based oncontext data of the electronic device 120, according to one embodimentof the present disclosure. Initially, the processor 250 may receive aspeech phrase from the user via the sound sensor 130 at 410. In oneembodiment, the speech recognition unit 252 in the processor 250 mayrecognize the received speech phrase as a command to generate thenotification. Alternatively, the speech recognition unit 252 unit mayreceive a first speech phrase as a command to activate the voiceassistant unit 254 via the sound sensor 130 and activate the voiceassistant unit 254 upon recognizing the first speech phrase as theactivation command. The voice assistant unit 254 may then receive thesecond speech phrase from the sound sensor 130 and recognize the phraseas the command to generate the notification. The command to generate thenotification may then be provide to the notification processing unit256.

In response to the command to generate the notification, thenotification processing unit 256 may receive context data of theelectronic device 120 from one or more sensors in the sensor unit 210 at430. In one embodiment, the notification processing unit 256 may receivecontext data at least based on one among a user input, movement of theelectronic device, timing information, location information of theelectronic device, ambient light value, and an input sound. Additionallyor alternatively, the processor 250 may also detect an event indicativeof an unacknowledged incoming communication as context data. Forexample, the processor 250 may receive an incoming communication (e.g.,a message, an email, etc.) via the communication unit 230 and store theincoming communication in the storage unit 240. Until the user 110reviews the incoming communication, the processor 250 may determine thatthe incoming communication has not been acknowledged (e.g., reviewed) bythe user 110 and thus detect the unacknowledged incoming communicationas context data, which may be provided to the notification processingunit 256 in the processor 250. Additionally or alternatively, the sensorunit 210 may include a separate processing unit that may detect an eventindicative of an unacknowledged incoming communication as context data.

At 440, the notification processing unit 256 may determine whether togenerate the notification based on the context data and the command togenerate the notification. In one embodiment, in response to therecognized command to generate the notification, the notificationprocessing unit 256 may determine whether the notification is to begenerated based on the context data. In this case, the notificationprocessing unit 256 may analyze one or more context data from the sensorunit 210 and/or the processor 250 or any combination thereof, such as auser input, an image of the user 110, an environmental condition (e.g.,location information, timing information, an ambient light value), amovement of the electronic device 120, an event indicative of anunacknowledged incoming communication, and/or an input sound (e.g., aspeech command). In the case of the image of the user 110, thenotification processing unit 256 may apply any suitable facialrecognition techniques to identify the face of the user 110 in one ormore images that may be received from the image sensor 310 in the sensorunit 210. In the case of the input sound, the notification processingunit 256 may determine whether the input sound is spoken in a directionother than a direction toward the electronic device 120, which may alsobe used as context data as will be described in more detail withreference to FIGS. 6 and 7.

The various types of context data may be processed by the notificationprocessing unit 256 to determine whether to generate the notification aswill be described in more detail with reference to FIG. 5. In oneembodiment, one or more types of context data may be given a higher orhighest priority so that the notification may be generated based ondetecting such types of context data despite detecting other types ofcontext data. Additionally or alternatively, a context score may bedetermined based on the various types of context data, each of which maybe weighted and combined. Once the notification processing unit 256determines that the notification is to be generated, it may provide acontrol signal to the output unit 220 to generate the notification at450.

Upon receiving the control signal, the output unit 220 may output thenotification via the speaker 222, the vibrating unit 224, the displayscreen 226, and/or the LED unit 228. For example, the speaker 222 in theoutput unit 220 may output an audible sound (e.g., an alarm sound, aringtone, or the like). Additionally or alternatively, the vibratingunit 224 in the output unit 220 may vibrate, or visible light may beoutput via the display screen 226 or the LED unit 228.

According to one embodiment, the electronic device 120 may be configuredto be in a silent mode in which the electronic device 120 may beconfigured to disable output of sound via the speaker 222. In this case,if the electronic device 120 determines that the notification is to begenerated, it may deactivate the silent mode so that the notificationmay be output via the speaker 222. For example, if the electronic device120 is in a vibrating mode in which vibration may be output via thevibrating unit 224 and output of sound via the speaker 222 is disabled,it may deactivate the vibrating mode to allow output of the notificationvia the speaker 222.

FIG. 5 illustrates a flowchart of a method performed by the notificationprocessing unit 256 in the processor 250 for determining whether thenotification is to be generated based on the context data, according toone embodiment of the present disclosure. For determining whether thenotification is to be generated, the notification processing unit 256may analyze and/or process context data from any one or more sensors orunits in the sensor unit 210. In some embodiments, the notificationprocessing unit 256 may assign a higher or highest priority to certaintypes of context data.

Initially, the notification processing unit 256 may determine at 510whether a user input is detected in the context data received from thesensor unit 210. For example, the user input may indicate that theelectronic device 120 is being used by or is accessible to the user 110.In one embodiment, if context data is determined to include the userinput (e.g., manual input) at 510, the notification processing unit 256may determine that no notification is to be generated at 560.Alternatively or additionally, the notification processing unit 256 maydetermine whether the electronic device 120 is being operated inresponse to a user input received as context data. For example, theelectronic device 120 may be displaying video on a display of theelectronic device 120 or playing a song in response to an input orcommand from the user 110. In this case, the notification processingunit 256 may determine that no notification is to be generated at 560.

On the other hand, if it is determined that no user input has beenreceived at 510, the notification processing unit 256 may determinewhether a current location or a current time of the electronic device120 is within a predetermined location or a predetermined time,respectively, at 520. In some embodiments, the electronic device 120 mayreceive and store one or more time periods and/or locations for whichthe notification is not to be generated from the user 110. Upondetermining that the current location or the current time of theelectronic device is within a predetermined location or a predeterminedtime, respectively, the notification processing unit 256 may determinethat the notification is not to be generated at 560. Otherwise, thenotification processing unit 256 may proceed to determine a contextscore for generating the notification based on other types of contextdata at 530.

In one embodiment, the notification processing unit 256 may receive thecurrent time as context data from the sensor unit 210 and determinewhether the current time is within a predetermined time period duringwhich the notification is not to be generated such as when the user 110may be inactive (e.g., asleep, night time, etc.) or may not be able toaccess the electronic device 120 (e.g., during a meeting). Thepredetermined time period during which the notification is not to begenerated may be determined based on usage history of the electronicdevice 120 or scheduled tasks in a calendar application of theelectronic device. For example, the notification processing unit 256 mayaccess the calendar application and determine that the current time iswithin a time period during which a meeting is scheduled at 520 and thusproceed to determine that no notification is to be generated at 560.

In another embodiment, the notification processing unit 256 may receivethe current location of the electronic device 120 as context data fromthe sensor unit 210 and determine whether the current locationcorresponds to a predetermined location for which the notification isnot to be generated. For example, the current location of the electronicdevice 120 may be determined to correspond to a location where the useof the electronic device 120 may be restricted such as a library, atheater, or the like. In this case, the notification processing unit 256may proceed to determine that the notification is not to be generated at560. Otherwise, the notification processing unit 256 may proceed todetermine a context score for generating the notification based on othertypes of context data at 530.

At 530, the notification processing unit 256 may determine a contextscore based on one or more types of context data. As used herein, theterm “context score” may be a probability value indicating whether theelectronic device 120 is in a context in which the notification is to begenerated. In one embodiment, the notification processing unit 256 maycalculate a context score based on context data received from the sensorunit 210 and/or the processor 250. For example, the context data mayinclude one or more types of context data other than the user input, thecurrent location, and the current time. Alternatively, the context datamay include all types of context data received from the sensor unit 210and/or the processor 250.

In some embodiments, a context score may be determined based on thetypes of context data such as an ambient light value, an image of auser, an event indicative of an unacknowledged incoming communication,and/or a movement of the electronic device. Each of the types of contextdata may be represented with any suitable values, which may be weightedby an associated predetermined weight and combined to calculate thecontext score using any suitable weighting scheme. For example, acontext score may be determined based on the context data, which may beweighted as shown in Table 1 below according to one embodiment of thepresent disclosure.

TABLE 1 Weighted Context Context Data Context Value Weight Value AmbientLight Intensity: 0.2 0.1 0.02 Image of User Image of User: 1 0.5 0.5Unacknowledged Elapsed time: 0.4 0.3 0.12 Incoming CommunicationMovement Elapsed time: 0.8 0.1 0.08

In the case of ambient light in Table 1 above, the ambient light may berepresented with a numerical context value in a range between 0 and 1that may be proportional to the intensity of the light, where the value0 may indicate a lowest intensity level (e.g., complete darkness) andthe value 1 may indicate a highest intensity. For example, a low ambientlight value may indicate that the electronic device 120 is covered by orlocated within an object (e.g., a plurality of books, paper, clothing, apocket, etc.) and thus the user 110 may not be able to find theelectronic device 120. In such a situation, a notification may begenerated to alert the user 110 of the electronic device 120. In othercases, a low ambient light value may be a result of the time of the daysuch as evening time and may not be clearly indicative of whether thenotification should be generated. Thus, in the illustrated embodiment inTable 1, a relatively low weight of 0.1 may be assigned to the ambientlight having an intensity of 0.2 such that the notification processingunit 256 may determine a weighted context value of 0.02 for the ambientlight value.

For the case of the image of the user 110, the image may be representedwith a numerical context value of either 0 or 1 depending on whether theuser 110 is recognized to be in the image. For example, when the user110 is identified in the image received from the image sensor 310, thevalue of 1 may be assigned. Otherwise, the value of 0 may be assigned.If the user 110 is detected in the image received via the image sensor310, it is highly likely that the user 110 can see the electronic device120. Accordingly, a relatively high weight of 0.5 may be assigned to theimage of the user 110 having a value of 1 in Table 1 so that thenotification processing unit 256 may determine a weighted context valueof 0.5 for the image.

In the case of the unacknowledged incoming communication in theelectronic device 120, an event indicative of such incomingcommunication data may be represented with a numerical context value ina range between 0 and 1, which may be inversely proportional to anelapsed time since the receipt of the unacknowledged incomingcommunication. For example, upon receiving an event indicative of theunacknowledged incoming communication as context data, the notificationprocessing unit 256 may determine how much time has elapsed since theunacknowledged incoming communication was received via the communicationunit 230. When the event indicative of the unacknowledged incomingcommunication is received immediately upon receipt via the communicationunit 230, the context value for the event may correspond to 1. On theother hand, when the elapsed time since the receipt of an unacknowledgedincoming communication is longer than a predetermined threshold timeperiod (e.g., 10 hours, a day, etc.), the context value for the eventindicative of the unacknowledged incoming communication may correspondto 0. For an elapsed time between these cases, any suitable intermediatevalue may be assigned in inverse proportion to the elapsed time. In theillustrated embodiment, a value of 0.4 may be assigned for an elapsedtime of six hours and a weight of 0.3 may be assigned to such an eventsuch that the notification processing unit 256 may determine a weightedcontext value of 0.12 for the event indicative of the unacknowledgedincoming communication.

For the case of the movement of the electronic device 120, movement dataindicative of a movement of the electronic device 120 may be representedwith a numerical context value in a range between 0 and 1, which may beinversely proportional to the elapsed time since the last or most recentmovement of the electronic device 120. For example, if the currentmovement data received from the movement sensor 320 indicates movementof the electronic device 120, the elapsed time may be zero and thecontext value for the movement of the electronic device 120 maycorrespond to 1. On the other hand, if the current movement dataindicated no movement of the electronic device, the notificationprocessing unit 256 may determine how much time has elapsed since thelast or most recent movement was detected based on a time that the lastor most recent movement was detected. For example, when movement dataindicating a movement of the electronic device 120 is received from themovement sensor 320, the processor 250 may store the time at which themovement of the electronic device 120 is detected in the storage unit240. In this case, the notification processing unit 256 may access thetime at which the last movement of the electronic device 120 wasdetected from the storage unit 240, and determine how much time haselapsed since the last movement was detected. If the elapsed time sincethe last or most recent movement of the electronic device 120 is longerthan a predetermined threshold time period (e.g., 10 hours, a day,etc.), the context value for the movement of the electronic device 120may be determined to be 0. For an elapsed time between zero and thepredetermined threshold time period, any suitable intermediate value maybe assigned in inverse proportion to the elapsed time. As shown in theillustrated embodiment, a value of 0.8 may be assigned for an elapsedtime of two hours and a weight of 0.1 may be assigned to such movementdata. In this case, the notification processing unit 256 may determine aweighted context value of 0.08 for the movement of the electronic device120.

Upon generating a weighted context value for each of the types ofcontext data in Table 1, the notification processing unit 256 maycalculate a context score of 0.72 by adding the weighted context values.For example, a context score S may be determined according to thefollowing equation

S = ?w_(i)v_(i), ?indicates text missing or illegible when filed                    

where w_(i) and v_(i) are a weight and a context value, respectively.Alternatively, a context score S may be determined according to anysuitable function for determining the context score such as

S = f(?), ?indicates text missing or illegible when filed                    

where v_(i) is a context value. Although the notification processingunit 256 determines the context score based on the types of context datashown in Table 1, it may also determine the context score based on othertypes of context data such as the user input, the current location, thecurrent time, a direction from which the input sound is spoken (e.g., adirection of departure), and/or the like. In such a case, a high weightvalue may be assigned to each of such types of context data such thatthe context score may be determined substantially based on one or moreof such types of context data.

With reference to FIG. 5, upon determining the context score, thenotification processing unit 256 may compare the context score with apredetermined threshold score at 540. If the context score is less thanor equal to the predetermined threshold score, the notificationprocessing unit 256 may determine that notification is to be generatedat 550. On the other hand, if the context score is determined to begreater than the predetermined threshold, the notification processingunit 256 may determine that the notification is not to be generated at560. With reference to Table 1 above, given a predetermined thresholdscore of 0.5, the notification processing unit 256 may determine thatthe notification is not to be generated at 560 since the calculatedcontext score of 0.72 is greater than or equal to the predeterminedthreshold score of 0.5. On the other hand, if a calculated context scoreis less than the threshold score, the notification processing unit 256may determine that the notification is to be generated at 550.

In some embodiments, the notification processing unit 256 may determinewhether to generate the notification additionally based on whether aninput sound is spoken in a direction toward the electronic device 120,which may correspond to a direction toward the sound sensor 130. Forexample, the input sound may be a speech phrase spoken by the user 110(e.g., a speech phrase indicative of a command to generate thenotification), which is received by the electronic device 120 via thesound sensor 130. Upon receiving the input sound, the notificationprocessing unit 256 may determine whether the input sound is spoken in adirection other than a direction toward the electronic device 120.

According to one embodiment, the notification processing unit 256 maydetermine a departure angle of the input sound from the user 110 as a“direction of departure” (DOD) of the input sound. In this case, theinput sound may be determined to be spoken in a direction toward theelectronic device 120 if the direction of departure of the input soundis in a direction along a line (e.g., a reference line or direction)between a sound source (e.g., a user) and the electronic device 120.Otherwise, the input sound may be determined to be spoken in a directionother than a direction toward the electronic device 120. Further, thenotification processing unit 256 may also determine that a direction ofdeparture of the input sound is toward the electronic device 120 whenthe direction is determined to be within a predetermined angle or rangefrom the line between the electronic device 120 and the user 110.

FIG. 6 illustrates an input sound spoken by the user 110 in a directiontoward the electronic device 120 according to one embodiment of thepresent disclosure. In the illustrated embodiment, the user 110 mayspeak a speech phrase as the input sound in a direction 610, which maydeviate from a reference direction 620 toward the electronic device 120.Upon receiving the speech phrase as an input sound via the sound sensor130, the notification processing unit 256 may determine a direction ofdeparture 610 of the speech phrase, the reference direction 620 betweenthe user 110 and the electronic device 120, and an angle θ₁ between thedirections 610 and 620. Given a predetermined angle β within which aninput sound may be considered to be spoken toward the electronic device120, the notification processing unit 256 may determine that the angleθ₁ is less than the predetermined angle β and thus determine that thedirection of departure 610 of the speech phrase is toward the electronicdevice 120.

FIG. 7 illustrates an input sound spoken by the user 110 in a directionother than a direction toward the electronic device 120 according to oneembodiment of the present disclosure. As shown in the illustratedembodiment, the user 110 may speak a speech phrase as the input sound ina direction 710, which may deviate from a reference direction 720 towardthe electronic device 120. Upon receiving the speech phrase as an inputsound via the sound sensor 130, the notification processing unit 256 maydetermine a direction of departure 710 of the speech phrase, thereference direction 720 between the user 110 and the electronic device120, and an angle θ₂ between the directions 710 and 720. Given thepredetermined angle β within which an input sound may be considered tobe spoken toward the electronic device 120, the notification processingunit 256 may determine that the angle θ₂ is greater than thepredetermined angle β and thus determine that the direction of departure710 of the speech phrase is in a direction other than a direction towardthe electronic device 120.

FIG. 8 illustrates recognizing a speech phrase as a command to generatethe notification based on reception times of a first speech phrase 810and a second speech phrase 820, according to one embodiment of thepresent disclosure. In the illustrated embodiment, the speech phrase mayinclude the first speech phrase 810 as a command to activate the voiceassistant unit 254 and the second speech phrase 820 as a command togenerate the notification. Initially, the user 110 may speak the firstspeech phrase (e.g., “Hey Snapdragon”) at time T1. The electronic device120 may receive the first speech phrase via the sound sensor 130 and thespeech recognition unit 252 may recognize the first speech phrase as acommand to activate the voice assistant unit 254 in the processor 250using any suitable speech recognition function. Upon recognizing thefirst speech phrase, the speech recognition unit 252 may activate thevoice assistant unit 254.

At time T2, the user 110 may speak the second speech phrase (e.g.,“Where are you”). The voice assistant unit 254, which has beenactivated, may receive the second speech phrase via the sound sensor 130and recognize the second speech phrase as a command to generate thenotification. Upon recognizing the second speech phrase as the commandto generate the notification, the voice assistant unit 254 may determinewhether the first speech phrase 810 and the second speech phrase 820 arereceived within a predetermined time period (e.g., 5 seconds) based onthe reception times of the first and second speech phrases 810 and 820.Once the first speech phrase 810 and the second phrase 820 aredetermined to have been received within the predetermined time period,the voice assistant unit 254 may activate the notification processingunit 256 and provide the recognized command to the notificationprocessing unit 256, which may determine whether to generate thenotification. In one embodiment, the voice assistant unit 254 may bedeactivated once it provides the recognized command to the notificationprocessing unit 256.

According to some embodiments, the speech recognition unit 252 or thevoice assistant unit 254 may recognize both of the first and secondspeech phrases 810 and 820. In one embodiment, the first and secondspeech phrases 810 and 820 may be received in any order or sequence andthe speech recognition unit 252 and/or the voice assistant unit 254 maybe configured to recognize the first and second speech phrases 810 and820 in such order. For example, if the speech recognition unit 252 failsto receive or recognize the first speech phrase 810 but receives andrecognizes the second speech phrase 820, the speech recognition unit 252may then receive and recognize the first speech phrase 810 as a commandto generate the notification.

FIG. 9 illustrates the electronic device 120 configured to transmit anotification including location information of the electronic device toan external device 930 of the user 110, according to one embodiment ofthe present disclosure. As used herein, the term “external device” maybe any electronic device that is physically separate from the electronicdevice 120 and capable of communicating wirelessly with the electronicdevice 120. As shown, the user 110 may be at a location 910 (e.g., anoffice) and the electronic device 120 may be at a location 920 (e.g.,home) such that the electronic device 120 may not be able to receive orrecognize a speech phrase spoken by the user 110.

In the illustrated embodiment, the user 110 may input a command (e.g., aspeech phrase to generate a notification) to the external device 930(e.g., a smartwatch, smart glasses, etc.) for locating the electronicdevice 120. In response, the external device 930 may wirelessly transmita request to generate the notification, which may include the inputspeech phrase, to the electronic device 120. Upon receiving the requestfor the notification via the communication unit 230, the processor 250in the electronic device 120 may receive location information from thelocation sensor 340 and wirelessly transmit the location information tothe external device 930 via the communication unit 230. Alternatively oradditionally, the processor 250 may receive any other types of contextdata indicative of a location of the electronic device (e.g., an imagecaptured by the image sensor 310) via the sensor unit 210 or from thestorage unit 240, and transmit such data as location information of theelectronic device 120 to the external device 930. Additionally oralternatively, the electronic device 120 may output the notification viathe output unit 220. In response to receiving the location informationof the electronic device 120, the external device 930 may output thelocation information for the user 110.

Additionally or alternatively, the external device 930 may receive aspeech phrase from the user 110 for locating the electronic device 120and recognize the speech phrase as a command to locate the electronicdevice 120. In response to the recognized command, the external device930 may transmit a request to generate a notification to the electronicdevice 120. Upon receiving the request, the electronic device 120 maytransmit location information of the electronic device 120 to theexternal device 930. Additionally, the electronic device 120 maytransmit any other types of context data of the electronic device 120 tothe external device 930. In this case, the external device 930 maydetermine whether the notification is to be generated by the electronicdevice 120 based on the context data received from the electronic device120. Upon determining that the notification is to be generated, theexternal device 930 may wirelessly transmit a command to generate thenotification to the electronic device 120, which may generate and outputthe notification in response. In some embodiments, the external device930 may be configured to detect context data of the external device 930via one or more sensors. Based on the detected context data of theexternal device 930, the external device 930 may select one or moreoutput units for outputting the location information of the electronicdevice 120 and output the location information via the selected outputunits for the user 110.

FIG. 10 illustrates a flowchart of a method performed by the processor250 for locking or unlocking the electronic device 120, according to oneembodiment of the present disclosure. At 1010, the notificationprocessing unit 256 may determine that the notification is to begenerated based on context data. For example, the notificationprocessing unit 256 in the processor 250 may determine that thenotification is to be generated based on one or more types of contextdata, which may indicate that the electronic device 120 is likely to beinaccessible to the user 110 (e.g., lost or misplaced). In response todetermining that the notification is to be generated, the processor 250may lock the electronic device 120 at 1020 to prevent unauthorizedaccess to the electronic device 120 by a user other than the user 110.At 1030, the processor 250 may receive a user input adapted to verifythe user 110 such as a sound input, a predetermined pattern or image, apersonal identification number, a password, a fingerprint, etc. via theinput unit 350, the sound sensor 130, a fingerprint sensor, and/or theimage sensor 310. In response to receiving and verifying the user input,the processor 250 may unlock the electronic device 120 at 1040. In oneembodiment, when the electronic device 120 has been locked in responseto determining that the notification is to be generated, the processor250 may unlock the electronic device based on a type of user input witha high level of verification or authentication. For example, theprocessor 250 may not unlock the electronic device 120 in response to apasscode input and may require a fingerprint or a facial image as theuser input to unlock the electronic device 120.

FIG. 11 illustrates a block diagram of an electronic device 1100 inwhich the methods and apparatus of the present disclosure for generatinga notification based on the context data and the command to generate thenotification may be implemented according to some embodiments. Theelectronic device 1100 may be a cellular phone, a smartphone, a wearablecomputer, a smart watch, smart glasses, a tablet personal computer, aterminal, a handset, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a cordlessphone, a tablet, and so on. The wireless communication system may be aCDMA system, a GSM system, a W-CDMA system, a LTE system, a LTE Advancedsystem, and so on.

The electronic device 1100 may be capable of providing bidirectionalcommunication via a receive path and a transmit path. On the receivepath, signals transmitted by base stations may be received by an antenna1112 and may be provided to a receiver (RCVR) 1114. The receiver 1114may condition and digitize the received signal, and provide theconditioned and digitized digital signal to a digital section forfurther processing. On the transmit path, a transmitter (TMTR) 1116 mayreceive data to be transmitted from a digital section 1120, process andcondition the data, and generate a modulated signal, which istransmitted via the antenna 1112 to the base stations. The receiver 1114and the transmitter 1116 may be part of a transceiver that may supportCDMA, GSM, W-CDMA, LTE, LTE Advanced, and so on.

The digital section 1120 may include various processing, interface, andmemory units such as, for example, a modem processor 1122, a reducedinstruction set computer/digital signal processor (RISC/DSP) 1124, acontroller/processor 1126, an internal memory 1128, a generalizedaudio/video encoder 1132, a generalized audio decoder 1134, agraphics/display processor 1136, and an external bus interface (EBI)1138. The modem processor 1122 may perform processing for datatransmission and reception, e.g., encoding, modulation, demodulation,and decoding. The RISC/DSP 1124 may perform general and specializedprocessing for the electronic device 1100. The controller/processor 1126may perform the operation of various processing and interface unitswithin the digital section 1120. The internal memory 1128 may store dataand/or instructions for various units within the digital section 1120.

The generalized audio/video encoder 1132 may perform encoding for inputsignals from an audio/video source 1142, a microphone 1144, an imagesensor 1146, etc. The generalized audio decoder 1134 may performdecoding for coded audio data and may provide output signals to aspeaker/headset 1148. The graphics/display processor 1136 may performprocessing for graphics, videos, images, and texts, which may bepresented to a display unit 1150. The EBI 1138 may facilitate transferof data between the digital section 1120 and a main memory 1152.

The digital section 1120 may be implemented with one or more processors,DSPs, microprocessors, RISCs, etc. The digital section 1120 may also befabricated on one or more application specific integrated circuits(ASICs) and/or some other type of integrated circuits (ICs).

In general, any device described herein may represent various types ofdevices, such as a wireless phone, a cellular phone, a laptop computer,a wireless multimedia device, a wireless communication personal computer(PC) card, a PDA, an external or internal modem, a device thatcommunicates through a wireless channel, etc. A device may have variousnames, such as access terminal (AT), access unit, subscriber unit,mobile station, mobile device, mobile unit, mobile phone, mobile, remotestation, remote terminal, remote unit, user device, user equipment,handheld device, etc. Any device described herein may have a memory forstoring instructions and data, as well as hardware, software, firmware,or combinations thereof.

The techniques described herein may be implemented by various means. Forexample, these techniques may be implemented in hardware, firmware,software, or a combination thereof. Those of ordinary skill in the artwould further appreciate that the various illustrative logical blocks,modules, circuits, and algorithm steps described in connection with thedisclosure herein may be implemented as electronic hardware, computersoftware, or combinations of both. To clearly illustrate thisinterchangeability of hardware and software, the various illustrativecomponents, blocks, modules, circuits, and steps have been describedabove generally in terms of their functionality. Whether suchfunctionality is implemented as hardware or software depends upon theparticular application and design constraints imposed on the overallsystem. Skilled artisans may implement the described functionality invarying ways for each particular application, but such implementationdecisions should not be interpreted as causing a departure from thescope of the present disclosure.

For a hardware implementation, the processing units used to perform thetechniques may be implemented within one or more ASICs, DSPs, digitalsignal processing devices (DSPDs), programmable logic devices (PLDs),field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), processors, controllers,micro-controllers, microprocessors, electronic devices, other electronicunits designed to perform the functions described herein, a computer, ora combination thereof.

Thus, the various illustrative logical blocks, modules, and circuitsdescribed in connection with the disclosure herein may be implemented orperformed with a general-purpose processor, a DSP, an ASIC, a FPGA orother programmable logic device, discrete gate or transistor logic,discrete hardware components, or any combination thereof designed toperform the functions described herein. A general-purpose processor maybe a microprocessor, but in the alternate, the processor may be anyprocessor, controller, microcontroller, or state machine. A processormay also be implemented as a combination of computing devices, e.g., acombination of a DSP and a microprocessor, a plurality ofmicroprocessors, one or more microprocessors in conjunction with a DSPcore, or any other such configuration.

If implemented in software, the functions may be stored on ortransmitted over as one or more instructions or code on acomputer-readable medium. Computer-readable media include both computerstorage media and communication media including any medium thatfacilitates the transfer of a computer program from one place toanother. A storage media may be any available media that can be accessedby a computer. By way of example, and not limited thereto, suchcomputer-readable media can comprise RAM, ROM, EEPROM, CD-ROM or otheroptical disk storage, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storagedevices, or any other medium that can be used to carry or store desiredprogram code in the form of instructions or data structures and that canbe accessed by a computer. Disk and disc, as used herein, includescompact disc (CD), laser disc, optical disc, digital versatile disc(DVD), floppy disk and Blu-ray disc, where disks usually reproduce datamagnetically, while discs reproduce data optically with lasers.Combinations of the above should also be included within the scope ofcomputer-readable media. For example, a computer-readable storage mediummay be a non-transitory computer-readable storage device that includesinstructions that are executable by a processor. Thus, acomputer-readable storage medium may not be a signal.

The previous description of the disclosure is provided to enable anyperson skilled in the art to make or use the disclosure. Variousmodifications to the disclosure will be readily apparent to thoseskilled in the art, and the generic principles defined herein areapplied to other variations without departing from the spirit or scopeof the disclosure. Thus, the disclosure is not intended to be limited tothe examples described herein but is to be accorded the widest scopeconsistent with the principles and novel features disclosed herein.

Although exemplary implementations are referred to utilizing aspects ofthe presently disclosed subject matter in the context of one or morestand-alone computer systems, the subject matter is not so limited, butrather may be implemented in connection with any computing environment,such as a network or distributed computing environment. Still further,aspects of the presently disclosed subject matter may be implemented inor across a plurality of processing chips or devices, and storage maysimilarly be affected across a plurality of devices. Such devices mayinclude PCs, network servers, and handheld devices.

Although the subject matter has been described in language specific tostructural features and/or methodological acts, it is to be understoodthat the subject matter defined in the appended claims is notnecessarily limited to the specific features or acts described above.Rather, the specific features and acts described above are disclosed asexample forms of implementing the claims.

<Aspects of the Present Disclosure>

Hereinafter, some aspects of the present disclosure will be additionallystated.

EXAMPLE 1

According to an aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided amethod for generating a notification by an electronic device,comprising: receiving a speech phrase; recognizing, by a processor, thespeech phrase as a command to generate the notification; detecting, byat least one sensor, context data of the electronic device; andgenerating, by the processor, the notification based on the context dataand the command

EXAMPLE 2

In the method of Example 1, detecting the context data is at least basedon one among a user input, movement of the electronic device, timinginformation, location information of the electronic device, ambientlight value, and an input sound.

EXAMPLE 3

In the method of Example 2, generating the notification comprisesdetermining whether the notification is to be generated at least basedon the context data.

EXAMPLE 4

In the method of Example 3, determining whether the notification is tobe generated comprises deactivating a silent mode of the electronicdevice upon determining that the notification is to be generated.

EXAMPLE 5

In the method of Example 3, determining whether the notification is tobe generated comprises determining that the notification is not to begenerated upon detecting that the context data includes the user input.

EXAMPLE 6

In the method of Example 4, determining whether the notification is tobe generated comprises at least one of: determining whether the timinginformation is within a predetermined time period during which thenotification is not to be generated; or determining whether the locationinformation of the electronic device corresponds to a predeterminedlocation where the notification is not to be generated.

EXAMPLE 7

In the method of Example 1, receiving a speech phrase comprisesreceiving, by a sound sensor, a first speech phrase and a second speechphrase, and recognizing the speech phrase as a command to generate thenotification comprises recognizing the speech phrase as the command togenerate the notification in response to determining that the firstspeech phrase and the second speech phrase are received within apredetermined time period.

EXAMPLE 8

In the method of Example 7, recognizing the speech phrase as a commandto generate the notification comprises recognizing the first speechphrase as a command to activate a voice assistant unit in the electronicdevice and the second speech phrase as the command to generate thenotification.

EXAMPLE 9

In the method of Example 1, receiving a speech phrase comprisesreceiving, by a communication unit, the speech phrase from an externaldevice, and generating the notification comprises transmitting, by thecommunication unit, location information of the electronic device to theexternal device.

EXAMPLE 10

The method of Example 4 further includes locking the electronic deviceto prevent unauthorized access to the electronic device in response todetermining that the notification is to be generated.

EXAMPLE 11

The method of Example 10 further includes unlocking the electronicdevice in response to receiving a user input.

EXAMPLE 12

The method of Example 1, generating the notification comprisesgenerating, by an output unit, at least one of audible sound, vibration,or visible light indicative of the notification.

EXAMPLE 13

According to an aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided anelectronic device for generating a notification, comprising: a soundsensor configured to receive a speech phrase; a speech recognition unitconfigured to recognize the speech phrase as a command to generate thenotification; a sensor unit configured to detect context data of theelectronic device; and a processor configured to generate thenotification based on the context data and the command.

EXAMPLE 14

The electronic device of Example 13 further includes an output unitconfigured to generate at least one of audible sound, vibration, orvisible light indicative of the notification.

EXAMPLE 15

In the electronic device of Example 13, the sensor unit is furtherconfigured to detect the context data at least based on one among a userinput, movement of the electronic device, timing information, locationinformation of the electronic device, ambient light value, and an inputsound.

EXAMPLE 16

In the electronic device of Example 15, the processor further comprisesa notification processing unit configured to determine whether thenotification is to be generated at least based on the context data.

EXAMPLE 17

In the electronic device of Example 16, the notification processing unitis further configured to determine whether the notification is to begenerated based on at least one of: determining that the notification isnot to be generated upon detecting that the context data includes theuser input; determining whether the timing information is within apredetermined time period during which the notification is not to begenerated; or determining whether the location information of theelectronic device corresponds to a predetermined location where thenotification is not to be generated.

EXAMPLE 18

In the electronic device of Example 13, the sound sensor is furtherconfigured to receive a first speech phrase and a second speech phraseas the speech phrase, and the speech recognition unit is furtherconfigured to recognize the speech phrase as a command to generate thenotification in response to determining that the first speech phrase andthe second speech phrase are received within a predetermined timeperiod.

EXAMPLE 19

The electronic device of Example 18 further includes a voice assistantunit, where the speech recognition unit is further configured torecognize the first speech phrase as a command to activate the voiceassistant unit and the voice assistant unit is configured to recognizethe second speech phrase as the command to generate the notification.

EXAMPLE 20

The electronic device of Example 13 further includes a communicationunit configured to receive the speech phrase from an external device andtransmit location information of the electronic device to the externaldevice.

EXAMPLE 21

In the electronic device of Example 16, the electronic device is furtherconfigured to perform at least one of: locking the electronic device toprevent unauthorized access to the electronic device in response todetermining that the notification is to be generated; or unlocking theelectronic device in response to receiving a user input.

EXAMPLE 22

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprisinginstructions causing at least one processor of an electronic device toperform operations of: receiving a speech phrase; recognizing the speechphrase as a command to generate the notification; detecting, via atleast one sensor, context data of the electronic device; and generatingthe notification based on the context data and the command.

EXAMPLE 23

In the non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of Example 22,detecting the context data is at least based on one among a user input,movement of the electronic device, timing information, locationinformation of the electronic device, ambient light value and an inputsound.

EXAMPLE 24

In the non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of Example 23,generating the notification comprises determining whether thenotification is to be generated at least based on the context data.

EXAMPLE 25

In the non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of Example 24,determining whether the notification is to be generated comprises atleast one of: determining that the notification is not to be generatedupon detecting that the context data includes the user input;determining whether the timing information is within a predeterminedtime period during which the notification is not to be generated; ordetermining whether the location information of the electronic devicecorresponds to a predetermined location where the notification is not tobe generated.

EXAMPLE 26

In the non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of Example 22,receiving, via a sound sensor, a speech phrase comprises receiving afirst speech phrase and a second speech phrase, and recognizing thespeech phrase as a command to generate the notification comprisesrecognizing the speech phrase as the command to generate thenotification in response to determining that the first speech phrase andthe second speech phrase are received within a predetermined timeperiod.

EXAMPLE 27

In the non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of Example 26,recognizing the speech phrase as a command to generate the notificationcomprises recognizing the first speech phrase as a command to activate avoice assistant unit in the electronic device and the second speechphrase as the command to generate the notification.

EXAMPLE 28

In the non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of Example 22,receiving a speech phrase comprises receiving, via a communication unit,the speech phrase from an external device, and generating thenotification comprises transmitting, via the communication unit,location information of the electronic device to the external device.

EXAMPLE 29

The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of Example 24further includes instructions causing the at least one processor of theelectronic device to perform at least one operation of: locking theelectronic device to prevent unauthorized access to the electronicdevice in response to determining that the notification is to begenerated; or unlocking the electronic device in response to receiving auser input.

EXAMPLE 30

In the non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of Example 22,generating the notification comprises generating, via an output unit, atleast one of audible sound, vibration, or visible light indicative ofthe notification.

What is claimed:
 1. A method for generating a notification by anelectronic device, comprising: receiving a speech phrase; recognizing,by a processor, the speech phrase as a command to generate thenotification; detecting, by at least one sensor, context data of theelectronic device; and generating, by the processor, the notificationbased on the context data and the command.
 2. The method of claim 1,wherein detecting the context data is at least based on one among a userinput, movement of the electronic device, timing information, locationinformation of the electronic device, ambient light value, and an inputsound.
 3. The method of claim 2, wherein generating the notificationcomprises determining whether the notification is to be generated atleast based on the context data.
 4. The method of claim 3, whereindetermining whether the notification is to be generated comprisesdeactivating a silent mode of the electronic device upon determiningthat the notification is to be generated.
 5. The method of claim 3,wherein determining whether the notification is to be generatedcomprises determining that the notification is not to be generated upondetecting that the context data includes the user input.
 6. The methodof claim 4, wherein determining whether the notification is to begenerated comprises at least one of: determining whether the timinginformation is within a predetermined time period during which thenotification is not to be generated; or determining whether the locationinformation of the electronic device corresponds to a predeterminedlocation where the notification is not to be generated.
 7. The method ofclaim 1, wherein receiving a speech phrase comprises receiving, by asound sensor, a first speech phrase and a second speech phrase, andwherein recognizing the speech phrase as a command to generate thenotification comprises recognizing the speech phrase as the command togenerate the notification in response to determining that the firstspeech phrase and the second speech phrase are received within apredetermined time period.
 8. The method of claim 7, wherein recognizingthe speech phrase as a command to generate the notification comprisesrecognizing the first speech phrase as a command to activate a voiceassistant unit in the electronic device and the second speech phrase asthe command to generate the notification.
 9. The method of claim 1,wherein receiving a speech phrase comprises receiving, by acommunication unit, the speech phrase from an external device, andwherein generating the notification comprises transmitting, by thecommunication unit, location information of the electronic device to theexternal device.
 10. The method of claim 4, further comprising lockingthe electronic device to prevent unauthorized access to the electronicdevice in response to determining that the notification is to begenerated.
 11. The method of claim 10, further comprising unlocking theelectronic device in response to receiving a user input.
 12. The methodof claim 1, wherein generating the notification comprises generating, byan output unit, at least one of audible sound, vibration, or visiblelight indicative of the notification.
 13. An electronic device forgenerating a notification, comprising: a sound sensor configured toreceive a speech phrase; a speech recognition unit configured torecognize the speech phrase as a command to generate the notification; asensor unit configured to detect context data of the electronic device;and a processor configured to generate the notification based on thecontext data and the command.
 14. The electronic device of claim 13,further comprising an output unit configured to generate at least one ofaudible sound, vibration, or visible light indicative of thenotification.
 15. The electronic device of claim 13, wherein the sensorunit is further configured to detect the context data at least based onone among a user input, movement of the electronic device, timinginformation, location information of the electronic device, ambientlight value, and an input sound.
 16. The electronic device of claim 15,wherein the processor comprises a notification processing unitconfigured to determine whether the notification is to be generated atleast based on the context data.
 17. The electronic device of claim 16,wherein the notification processing unit is further configured todetermine whether the notification is to be generated based on at leastone of: determining that the notification is not to be generated upondetecting that the context data includes the user input; determiningwhether the timing information is within a predetermined time periodduring which the notification is not to be generated; or determiningwhether the location information of the electronic device corresponds toa predetermined location where the notification is not to be generated.18. The electronic device of claim 13, wherein the sound sensor isfurther configured to receive a first speech phrase and a second speechphrase as the speech phrase, and wherein the speech recognition unit isfurther configured to recognize the speech phrase as a command togenerate the notification in response to determining that the firstspeech phrase and the second speech phrase are received within apredetermined time period.
 19. The electronic device of claim 18,further comprising a voice assistant unit, wherein the speechrecognition unit is further configured to recognize the first speechphrase as a command to activate the voice assistant unit, and whereinthe voice assistant unit is configured to recognize the second speechphrase as the command to generate the notification.
 20. The electronicdevice of claim 13, further comprising: a communication unit configuredto receive the speech phrase from an external device and transmitlocation information of the electronic device to the external device.21. The electronic device of claim 16, wherein the electronic device isfurther configured to perform at least one of: locking the electronicdevice to prevent unauthorized access to the electronic device inresponse to determining that the notification is to be generated; orunlocking the electronic device in response to receiving a user input.22. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprisinginstructions causing at least one processor of an electronic device toperform operations of: receiving a speech phrase; recognizing the speechphrase as a command to generate a notification; detecting, via at leastone sensor, context data of the electronic device; and generating thenotification based on the context data and the command
 23. Thenon-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 22, whereindetecting the context data is at least based on one among a user input,movement of the electronic device, timing information, locationinformation of the electronic device, ambient light value and an inputsound.
 24. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim23, wherein generating the notification comprises determining whetherthe notification is to be generated at least based on the context data.25. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 24,wherein determining whether the notification is to be generatedcomprises at least one of: determining that the notification is not tobe generated upon detecting that the context data includes the userinput; determining whether the timing information is within apredetermined time period during which the notification is not to begenerated; or determining whether the location information of theelectronic device corresponds to a predetermined location where thenotification is not to be generated.
 26. The non-transitorycomputer-readable storage medium of claim 22, wherein receiving, via asound sensor, a speech phrase comprises receiving a first speech phraseand a second speech phrase, and wherein recognizing the speech phrase asa command to generate the notification comprises recognizing the speechphrase as the command to generate the notification in response todetermining that the first speech phrase and the second speech phraseare received within a predetermined time period.
 27. The non-transitorycomputer-readable storage medium of claim 26, wherein recognizing thespeech phrase as a command to generate the notification comprisesrecognizing the first speech phrase as a command to activate a voiceassistant unit in the electronic device and the second speech phrase asthe command to generate the notification.
 28. The non-transitorycomputer-readable storage medium of claim 22, wherein receiving a speechphrase comprises receiving, via a communication unit, the speech phrasefrom an external device, and wherein generating the notificationcomprises transmitting, via the communication unit, location informationof the electronic device to the external device.
 29. The non-transitorycomputer-readable storage medium of claim 24, further comprisinginstructions causing the at least one processor of the electronic deviceto perform at least one operation of: locking the electronic device toprevent unauthorized access to the electronic device in response todetermining that the notification is to be generated; or unlocking theelectronic device in response to receiving a user input.
 30. Thenon-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 22, whereingenerating the notification comprises generating, via an output unit, atleast one of audible sound, vibration, or visible light indicative ofthe notification.